Athletes foot

Posted by anti3protect series on May 5th, 2018

Athletes foot is a rash on the skin of the foot. It is the most common fungal skin infection. There are three main types of athlete's foot. Each type affects different parts of the foot and may look different.

Athletes foot is caused by a fungus that grows on or in the top layer of skin. Fungi (plural of fungus) grow best in warm, wet places, such as the area between the toes.

Athletes foot spreads easily. You can get it by touching the toes or feet of a person who has it. But most often, people get it by walking barefoot on contaminated surfaces near swimming pools or in locker rooms. The fungi then grow in your shoes, especially if your shoes are so tight that air cannot move around your feet.

If you touch something that has fungi on it, you can spread athletes foot to other people—even if you dont get the infection yourself. Some people are more likely than others to get athletes foot. Experts dont know why this is. After you have had athletes foot, you are more likely to get it again.

Athletes foot can make your feet and the skin between your toes burn and itch. The skin may peel and crack. Your symptoms can depend on the type of athletes foot you have.

Herpes gladiatorum

Herpes gladiatorum, as the name suggests, is not at all uncommon with wrestlers, Badger says. There are sometimes epidemic outbreaks throughout a whole team. My friends a wrestler, and Im always giving him something for herpes.

The infection is spread through close skin-to-skin contact, and results in a herpes simplex rash generally found on the shoulders, arms, neck, and face. (It happens enough that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has looked into ways of addressing its impact on wrestling.) Antiviral medications can speed up its subsidence, but generally, there are not many preventive options besides watching for rashes and scrubbing those mats.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) acquired during wrestling is one of the most common infections caused by personal contact during athletic activity, according to a report in the December issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. Physicians say the condition, called herpes gladiatorum, causes skin lesions on the head, neck, and shoulders that are often misdiagnosed.

Skin contact is the primary mode of HSV-1 transmission, says Mark Dworkin, MD, MPHTM, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC. In wrestling, the head and neck are major points of contact, and over 90% of the lesions we observed erupted in this area. Dworkin tells WebMD that herpes can reactivate over the lifespan in times of physical and emotional stress. Herpes can also result in serious systemic illness and vision loss years later, particularly if immunity is compromised. Sports medicine experts say wrestlers with active lesions should be temporarily excluded from participating in wrestling events.

According to the investigators, additional research is needed for prevention. Our findings support previous research that showed HSV-1 is transmitted primarily through skin contact,says Dworkin. Still, the possibility of transmission through contaminated objects like wrestling mats deserves further study. That will help determine if routine bleaching is effective in decontaminating the mats.